Scott Walker Stuns With His Version of Venn Diagram

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3 months ago
Newser — Neal Colgrass

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker talks about legislation he signed into law during a news conference Friday, Dec. 14, 2018 in Green Bay, Wis.

To no one's surprise, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker signed legislation Friday limiting the power of Gov-elect Tony Evers. But he did throw the world a curveball by explaining the new law with a uniquely reimagined Venn diagram, per the Milwaukee Sentinel-Journal.

At a Green Bay news conference, Walker displayed a diagram that seemed Venn at first glance—with one circle showing his powers, another Evers', and the overlapping part for powers they share.

Yet his powers and Evers' are listed as exactly the same (with items like "appointment authority," "budget authority," "veto authority"), while the overlapping part reads "Both Administrations: Same Powers." Twitter erupted:

One tweeter writes the hashtag "#WIPowergrab" over his own drawing of two circles that don't overlap: One reads "Informative Venn Diagrams," the other "Venn Diagrams Scott Walker uses."

"I will give $100 to the first journalist who asks Walker if he was too intimidated to announce this in Madison," tweets another.

"$200 if you also ask him to define what a Venn diagram is."

"As a math teacher I would like to thank you for creating a real-world example on how NOT to construct a Venn diagram," quips another.

"We get that Walker is trying to downplay the changes that were made," writes Philip Bump at the Washington Post, "but, by leaving out things that separate his powers from Evers’, he ends up making the Venn diagram format particularly useless."

Bump helpfully redesigns Walker's diagram by placing "More control of WEDC [Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation]," "Broader control of work requirement rules," "Broader ability to enact new rules," and "More ability to change benefits programs" in Walker's circle.